Diana strode through the still very wet shrubs and arrived at a large tent. All the wounded soldiers lay here, their faces pale, occasionally letting out painful groans. Diana's brow never loosened.
"Your Highness, the casualties have been tallied," a female warrior came over to say, "All severely wounded soldiers have been saved, but we still lost four people, and there are more than sixty injured."
Diana sighed. Although this number doesn't seem large, there aren't many Amazonians overall, and even if everyone were soldiers, there wouldn't be many troops. They have special abilities and generally don't suffer non-combat losses—this is the biggest casualty for the Amazons in a century.
"Go and report to the Queen," Diana said, "It's my fault for not guarding Paradise Island well, I'll personally apologize to her."
"It's not your fault, Your Highness. Those Atlanteans are too despicable..."
Diana shook her head and said, "It's not entirely the Atlanteans, I think someone might be instigating. I've already sent someone to investigate, we'll soon have results."
Diana stayed in the hospital for a while, and before long, a phone call came through. Bruce's voice appeared on the other end: "Indeed, as you guessed, Diana. The action of that bastard named Arthur was leaked from the official American agent agency, it seems the Coast Guard people are collaborating with Orm."
"Damn it! What the hell are these agent agencies keeping secret? Why can anyone get intelligence from them?"
"Although their confidentiality work is indeed not very confidential, this time it might be different," Bruce said, "I suspect they did it deliberately."
Diana frowned. Bruce continued: "The situation within America is currently very tense. Generally speaking, the governing party with a large vote advantage disagrees with re-election, while the opposition party wants to use the fact that the Capitol Building was moved to Metropolis to deny the legitimacy of the election process, thus re-electing. I think you understand now."
At first, Diana didn't react, but soon she realized: actually, this election was already won by the governing party, re-election was already a foregone conclusion, but just because there was an error when counting votes—the Capitol Building was moved—the opposition party seized on this excuse, insisting on a re-vote to turn the tide.
So, at this time, the governing party definitely doesn't want any more trouble. Even though the Capitol Building was moved, it was moved intact, without affecting the members inside or interfering with the voting machines, so the demand to deny its legitimacy might not be accepted, at least the reason is not sufficient.
But if there's some trouble at this time, like Metropolis getting flooded, or triggering a tsunami or something, then the opposition's reason becomes more sufficient—all the ballots got flooded, why not re-elect?
So the governing party definitely doesn't want Orm to engage in any tsunami plans. Their biggest wish now is for the voting results to land safely, so they'll try to prevent Orm from attacking America in the short term.
So they deliberately leaked intelligence, made a move to divert trouble, intentionally revealing Arthur's actions and the golden trident's information to Orm, redirecting his focus towards the Amazons, ultimately causing Orm to give up the tsunami plan under competitive pressure and turn to attack the Amazons.
Diana stood up from the ground, took a deep breath, clenched her fists tightly, then "whoosh" flew up, heading directly towards the Amazon airport.
Getting off the plane at Metropolis airport, Diana didn't even pay attention to the shocked gazes, flew straight out of the airport from the entrance like a missile, rushing towards Metropolis Central Plaza.
Just as she flew near the Capitol Building, she saw a familiar figure—Arthur wielding the golden trident, angrily heading towards the Capitol Building.
So she stopped, flew to Arthur's side. The two exchanged a look, Diana said: "What a coincidence, you're here too."
"Yeah, wouldn't happen that you've also found out..."
The two of them simultaneously sneered, more as if they were angered to laughter. On the road to the Capitol Building, both their phones rang one after the other, but the same voice came through:
"Hello, this is A.R.G.U.S., have you considered?"
And they responded in unison with a roar:
"Get lost!!!!!!"
The two viciously hung up the phone, almost simultaneously rushing into the Capitol Building, landing in the center of the circular hall. By happenstance, the members were still debating whether to re-vote, and froze upon seeing the two "supermen" flying in.
"Silence!" Arthur shouted, "Why did you want to provoke war between Atlantis and the Amazons?!"
"You damn bastards!" Diana stepped forward as well, "What good does it do you to stir up the world?!"
The two of them carried an overpowering scent of blood and killing intent, and the congressmen were adept at reading faces. They quickly realized these two had come with ill intentions, and if they didn't provide a satisfactory explanation, things could become very troublesome.
So they began whispering among themselves. However, they weren't discussing whether they did it, but rather, who did it.
The saying goes, "If you've done nothing guilty, you need not fear the ghost knocking at your door." Most of the congressmen present had been in the game for thirty or forty years, and their guilty deeds could amount to "a hundred ghosts parading at night." So when two "ghosts" came knocking, they couldn't even recall which stage or under what circumstances they had committed wrongdoings.
As for "didn't do it"? That was even more impossible. It didn't matter where Atlantis and the Amazon were; as long as the words "inciting war" were involved, it was basically them. Since World War II, there had been no large or small wars in the world that weren't related to them; if they really weren't related, they would doubt their own abilities.
"Wasn't it in the eighties? I remember the Amazon Queen visited America then, and we wanted the Iberian people to ambush the embassy?"
"It can't be, I remember it was the sixties. Back then, our president visited Europe, and agents disguised as Amazonians planted a car bomb in Italy..."
"No, you're all wrong. It was the repercussions of the arms embargo in the nineties..."
The crowd whispered, ultimately unable to figure out who had done it, but anyway, more lice don't make you itch. One congressman cleared his throat and said, "I deeply regret the war in your country. We sympathize with the afflicted Amazonians and... um, Atlanteans. But this is just the growing pains of normal international relations adjustments. I believe America has the responsibility and capability to play the role of an absolutely impartial mediator to help you stabilize your domestic situation quickly. What are your demands? Are you representatives of the military government?"
Diana and Arthur exchanged a glance. Before they could speak, an old congressman said, "We support the Atlanteans and Amazonians in pursuing their own democracy, and vehemently oppose brutal dictatorship. All anti-dictatorship, pro-freedom armed activities should be supported. America is willing to voice support for the democratic demands of the Amazonian and Atlantean people and can provide military aid to some extent. Can you tell us about your domestic situation? That way, we can judge whether to provide you with weapon support or directly deploy elite soldiers for surgical precision operations..."
"I believe the Federal Government's policy toward that country is problematic," another congressman stood up and said, "The internal disputes in the Amazon Country and Atlantis are entirely due to the ruling party's insufficient efforts in mediating international relations, without an active focus on the livelihood and rights of small nations. Such incidents during Mr. President's tenure indirectly reflect the unreasonableness of his re-election."
"I disagree. The ruling party has handled diplomatic relations with the Amazon Country and Atlantis with no issues. We have consistently supported the people of the free world in resisting dictatorial rule in their way. All wars for democracy are just, and this is precisely a sign of diplomatic success."
"I think so too..."
"I object!"
"I object to your objection!"
"I object too!"
In fact, Diana and Arthur, standing in the center of the hall now, were a bit bewildered. They initially thought that by questioning these congressmen, the other side would try every means to explain or justify, or even apologize indifferently, or outright confront them with hostility, considering using force to chase them away.
Unexpectedly, they didn't consider inciting war as wrong—they believed it was about upholding justice.
They didn't even know if the world had such a country as Atlantis, or where it was. Anyway, if war broke out, there was a dictator oppressing the people, and the people were resisting with force for democracy.
The strategies they adopted towards these war-torn countries were all to support the people in their pursuit of democracy. They did not view this as interference in domestic affairs or inciting war; they saw themselves as the embodiment of justice, only now they were debating which party is the most righteous embodiment.
But one had to admit that their attitude left Diana and Arthur momentarily speechless.
The anticipated verbal battle, the exchange of words, didn't happen at all—they fundamentally didn't see war as wrong, only as a necessary means to pursue democracy, where sacrificing however many people was warranted.
All the dialogue seemed caught within a framework: whatever you said, they had a point. You say it's not a civil war, they say one country is more democratic, and the war is just to lead the other country onto the democratic path; you say it's a naval and land war, they'll tell you one of the seas or lands is more democratic, and they're helping the undemocratic side resist repression; you say it's a superpower users war, they'll say one of the superpower users is more dictatorial; you say both sides are dictatorial kingdoms, they'll say one side's people long for democracy more, hence the war.
And they initiate wars as a way to help the more democratic side shake off the yoke of dictatorship, traversing the glorious road of American democracy. You say the war caused heavy casualties, they say pursuing democracy requires a price; you say America doesn't need to intervene, they'll say "we are the leaders of the democratic world, we must intervene."
Evidently, concerning igniting wars all over the globe, they've evolved a perfectly closed-loop logic. If you dare to refute any link within, they say you oppose democracy, calling you a brutal dictator.
Arthur took a deep breath, his hand gripping the golden trident trembled slightly. At the same time, the waters of Metropolis began to rise against the tide.